This is a blog about getting an abortion. I, the author, am pro-choice, a proud atheist, and am a bit of a biology nerd. This blog is for women and girls who need a chance to hear from someone about what its really like, and something I need to help me through this sort of scary experience that lots of women go through, but few talk about. I cannot claim that anyone else's experience will be like mine, but hey... at least now we can start comparing notes. Email: abortionblogger at gmail.

Finding stuff

Hey! Thanks for checking out my blog. I had my abortion in Dec 2008, so you can find most of the posts about the nitty gritty by clicking on "2008" in the blog archives, and checking out things from there.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

O! I get it, the healthcare system is broken.

Ok, I finally figured it out. Planned Parenthood sent them a bill for $1,000+, and my insurance company analysed it and decided that based on the agreements they have for huge discounts to insurance companies, that the bill should have been about $275, and that much money was applied to my deductible. Since I payed $525, they have to pay me back for the difference. But if I cant get that money back, I will still only have $275 applied to my deductible. They made this as unclear as possible in the weird letter they wrote me. I will be doubly screwed if I can't get that money back and end up needing to spend my entire deductible.

An important thing to note here (that probably the whole world except me knew) is that the insurance system is based on these huge discounts for insurance companies and people with insurance. In other words, if I didnt have insurance... I would have paid quite a bit more for the same service. Basically, uninsured people are being totally fucked over- their medical care prices are absurdly high compared to other people's. Even a place like Planned Parenthood that does sliding scale based on income, has to accept lower payments from the insurance companies and insured then from their poorest uninsured clients. Ok, I'm not actually sure what their lowest sliding scale rate is for abortion, but I think I heard $300 once. I am not sure. But I bet it is not less than, say, $250.

This is not really about abortion, it was exactly the same situation for my co-worker's daughter who was getting her appendix removed. The hospital could only get a little over half the money they would have been able to bill if she were uninsured. So, with insurance it was a $4,000 procedure counting co-payments and what the insurance company paid. If she were uninsured, it would have been a $7,000 procedure. Now that's what I call fair. Thanks, capitalism!